Immigration in Today's Society

There are millions of people in this country that are living here illegally. There are dozens if not hundreds of reasons why people come choose to live in the United States illegally. Whether it is for financial gain or pursuit of a new life illegal immigrants have been in this country since our formation over two hundred years ago. Many people find it interesting that immigration is such a hot topic for the upcoming election yet it is something that our country was founded on. In fact Martin Van Buren, the eighth president of the United States, was the first president born after the United States of America became an independent country. Regardless on your political view of immigration one must realize how it has as is shaping our country.
When evaluating the good and bad sides to immigration evaluating crime among the immigration populations can help point you in the right direction. Studies on links between immigration and crime are mixed. Certain studies have suggested that immigrants are underrepresented in criminal statistics. An article in The New York Times by Harvard University Professor in Sociology Robert Sampson says that immigration of Hispanics may in fact be associated with decreased crime. It is estimated that the involvement in crime by Hispanic immigrants are less than that of other citizens. Part of this effect might be explained by the fact that immigrants, on average, have spent far less time in their adopted country than native-born citizens have and so have had less time to rack up legal infractions. Immigrants, both legal and illegal do not raise the rate of crime in the United States and native born Americans are five times more likely to be incarcerated than immigrants. In a study released by the non-partisan research group The Public Policy Institute of California immigrants (legal and illegal) were ten times less likely to be incarcerated than native born Americans.
In his 1999 book Crime and...